“You are the only people who make us feel like there is hope.”
Helen Lewis and her fellow Stonecroft Bible Studies Guides are hope-bearers for the women in the Washington County Correctional Facility in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Six Stonecroft volunteers enter the jail pods weekly to help inmates understand Jesus’ love for them and discover how the Bible gives guidance for living. Inmates’ hugs greet the volunteers and acknowledge their goodbyes.
Several Women’s Connection Groups across the country hold SBS outreach in jails and prisons. The Bartlesville SBS at the jail are an offshoot of another Women’s Connection outreach at the correctional center where volunteer Debbie King teaches a monthly life lesson that includes practical life skills. The SBS provide additional encouragement between life-lesson sessions.
“I’ve seen girls come out of jail and change their lives,” says Helen. She and another Guide invite inmates being released to join them in their community SBS for continued support.
A former inmate recently thanked some volunteers. “It is because of your faithfulness to come see us that I began to believe there is hope for my life,” the woman told them. She now has a job, a place to live, and can pay her fines. But that’s not all – she has received Christ and is following His lead!
Similar correctional center SBS are held in Florida, Virginia, and other states. What is God placing in your heart to do?